View full sizeIn this Wednesday, June 6, 2012, file photo, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, center, inspects Indian troops during a welcoming ceremony at the Ministry of Defense in New Delhi, India. Panetta has said he envisions about 40,000 U.S. troops remaining in the Middle East after withdrawal from Iraq. A new report today indicates about 13,500 would be in Kuwait. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool, File)

WASHINGTON — The United States is planning to keep a
significant military presence of 13,500 troops in Kuwait to give it the
flexibility to respond to sudden conflicts in the region as Iraq adjusts
to the withdrawal of American combat forces and the world nervously
eyes Iran, according to a new congressional report.

The study by the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee examined the U.S. relationship with
the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — against a
fast-moving backdrop. In just the last two days, Saudi Arabia's ruler
named Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz as the country's new
crown prince after last week's death of Prince Nayef, and Kuwait's
government suspended parliament meetings for a month over an internal
political feud.

The latest developments inject even more
uncertainty as the Middle East deals with the demands of the Arab
Spring, the end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq at the end of 2011,
fears of Iran's nuclear program and the counterterrorism campaign.

"Home
to more than half of the world's oil reserves and over a third of its
natural gas, the stability of the Persian Gulf is critical to the global
economy," the report said. "However, the region faces a myriad of
political and security challenges, from the Iranian nuclear program to
the threat of terrorism to the political crisis in Bahrain."

The
report, obtained by The Associated Press in advance of Tuesday's
release, provided precise numbers on U.S. forces in Kuwait, a presence
that Pentagon officials have only acknowledged on condition of
anonymity. Currently, there are about 15,000 U.S. forces in Kuwait at
Camp Arifjan, Ali Al Salem Air Base and Camp Buehring, giving the United
States staging hubs, training ranges and locations to provide
logistical support. The report said the number of troops is likely to
drop to 13,500.

Several members of Congress, most notably Sens.
John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had pressed for a
residual U.S. force to remain in Iraq, but the failure of the two
countries to agree on whether American troops should be granted legal
immunity scuttled that idea. Instead, officials talked of positioning a
strong U.S. force just across the border in Kuwait. The strategy
preserves "lily pad" basing that allows the military to move quickly
from one location to the next.

As it recalibrates its national
security strategy, the United States is drawing down forces in Europe
while focusing on other regions, such as the Middle East and Asia.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said he envisions about 40,000 troops
stationed in the Middle East region after the withdrawal from Iraq. By
comparison, a cut of two Army combat brigades and the withdrawal of two
other smaller units will leave about 68,000 troops in Europe.

During
the 1991 Persian Gulf War, some half a million U.S. forces were in the
Middle East region. The United States maintained about 5,000 troops in
Kuwait from the end of the Gulf War to March 2003, when U.S. and
coalition forces invaded Iraq to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The U.S.-led invasion was in response to reports, later discredited,
that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction.

The
report emphasized that the region is critical as a counterbalance to
Iran, whose conventional military includes 350,000 ground forces, 1,800
tanks and more than 300 fighter aircraft. It also has ballistic missiles
with the range to target regional allies, including Israel.